


The Stone-Hearted Witch

by ImJustMi



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Style, Falling In Love, Hurt/Comfort, Pure Heart, True Love, Wishes, and alive, for a while, no happy ending, stone heart, the castle is magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:08:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26214613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImJustMi/pseuds/ImJustMi
Summary: Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there was a Witch with a stone heart.She lived alone in her old castle since time immemorial, in fact none of the villagers remembered seeing her arrive and no one dared to ask how much longer she would remain.The Stone-Hearted Witch, those few people who had met her crossing the castle in the middle of the night told, was of such incomparable beauty that if they had not known of her being a witch they could easily mistake her for a princess.But woe betide those who dared to actually approach her, because the Stone-Hearted Witch had no feelings, she didn’t know pity or compassion, but was able with her gloomy eyes to peer into the depths of the human heart and realize its desires.(I'm not a native english speaker so if there are any mistakes please let me know)
Relationships: prince Adal/stone-hearted witch
Kudos: 1





	The Stone-Hearted Witch

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there was a Witch with a stone heart.  
She lived alone in her old castle since time immemorial, in fact none of the villagers remembered seeing her arrive and no one dared to ask how much longer she would remain.

The Stone-Hearted Witch, those few people who had met her crossing the castle in the middle of the night told, was of such incomparable beauty that if they had not known of her being a witch they could easily mistake her for a princess.

But woe betide those who dared to actually approach her, because the Stone-Hearted Witch had no feelings, she didn’t know pity or compassion, but was able with her gloomy eyes to peer into the depths of the human heart and realize its desires.

Once, a swaggering son of a cartman had tried to approach her, and the next day he had escaped from the village riding his father's horse screaming loudly that he was tired of his mediocre life and of the sad future that awaited him. The horse returned home safely two days later, but the boy was never heard from again.

Another time, however, it was the indiscreet baker who searched for the Witch. The morning after their meeting she went to the oven as usual, but instead of baking the delicious bread that everyone loved she set fire to the whole building and kept watching it burning until nothing remained, before the stunned eyes of all the inhabitants of the kingdom. After that day no one saw her again and what her longed desire was no one ever discovered it.

Since the Stone-Hearted Witch lived in the castle there had been countless similar cases, but never once had she done anything to persuade others to look for her, never once had she chosen who the castle would decide to open its haunted doors to make them free from their chains. The Stone-Hearted Witch, in fact, spent her whole life in her old, silent, and lonely castle, and it didn’t matter, to her that she had no feelings, how was the life of those who lived in a world completely different from hers.

When she saw from her sumptuous balcony the bright lights of the village in celebration her stone heart felt neither envy nor contempt in watching those people, small as ants, enjoying the short life they had. Indeed, she observed the motions of their souls and listened to the words that seemed to reach her as if from a few meters away, for the voice of the heart is very loud if only one can listen to it.

On festive night, no one ever came looking for her, because the spirits were fulfilled with little joys. But one evening, suddenly, while the village was amid the festivities, someone knocked on her door.

The door opened with a magical force, with no one touching it, and the Stone-Hearted Witch's lips curved into a smile when she saw who the new host was.  
"Your Majesty," she bowed mockingly, and as soon as the diaphanous light of the moon lit both, the Witch's stone-hearted eyes looked deep into the king's soul, "your desire will be granted."

The king returned home after disappearing for days, now tired and sick, and without his leadership the kingdom fell into a deep crisis.  
The queen, who had often heard of the Stone-Hearted Witch, had no doubt that it had been her work, that she had cursed him to take control of the kingdom.

"Which of you three will be able to kill her and break the spell will become king” the queen declared one day to her three eldest children, who had all been valiant leaders in the past, confident in their abilities. But none of them yet knew that the Stone-Hearted Witch was nothing close to the enemies they had already faced and defeated.

First it was the turn of the oldest, Gladius, known in the kingdom for his impetuosity as a warrior, he was not fond of waiting and for him the battle was decided by the first hit.

He arrived at the Witch's castle on a foggy morning, wearing the most durable armor he had and armed with the best sword in the kingdom, able to cut off a head in one strike. He knocked on the big door and walked away as quickly as his armor allowed him to, the sword was already drawn and aimed forward.  
The door opened as if by magic and prince Gladius, having a starting run, pierced the Witch in the chest with all the strength he had.

But the Stone-Hearted Witch had this name for a reason. Gladius's sword broke without being able to cross her.

"Didn't you know my heart is made of stone?"

Shocked, Gladius took off his helmet and retreated frightenedly falling to the ground, but the Witch had now seen his soul and was determined to fulfill his wish.

"Your wish will be granted."

The prince ran away screaming and as soon as he entered the palace he burst into a desperate cry like never before.  
"Mother! Father! Why don't you love me? Why? Why don't you love me?"  
Prince Gladius repeated those words until he lost his voice and now, exhausted by all the tears he shed, he locked himself in his room, not wanting to see or hear anyone.

No one at the palace could have imagined that Gladius would fail, and given his brother's condition, the other two princes realized they had to think of a strategy for when their turn would come.

Soon it was the turn of the second son, Adal, the most quiet and thoughtful of the three. In the past he had been a great help in peace negotiations, and he was not afraid on the battlefield when he decided the battle was worth fighting. Prince Adal, however, was not at all interested in the throne, in fact, he did not have a real plan. He had understood, from the few words told by his brother and the rumors, that the Witch must have had a real heart of stone, cold and impenetrable, but if she was still alive, then somewhere her heart had to be still beating. So he didn't really care about killing her but he wanted to hear that heart beating at all costs.

He showed up at his door without armor or weapons, knocked decisively at the big door and waited for an answer. Just as his father and brother had told him, the door opened without being touched. A woman of indescribable beauty looked at him from inside the castle.

The Stone-Hearted Witch sought in her soul a repressed desire to be fulfilled or a forbidden thirst to appease, but she saw nothing. The man in front of her had a pure heart like that of a child who had just come into the world, who still did not open his eyes and hadn’t known evil yet. Centuries had passed since she last saw one.

"There's nothing I can do for you, I'm sorry," she said, bowing and turned her back.

"Perhaps there is something I can do for you, allow me to enter."

The Witch stopped in her place. There was no reason to think about those words, there was seriously no reason to listen to him, but something told her she should give him a chance. In any case, her heart would soon become completely stone and she would have nothing left to lose.  
She did not turn to look at him and continued on her way, the door remained open inviting him to enter. The young man wasted no time and followed her to the gloomy rooms of the castle.

"Don't you ever feel lonely?"

But the Witch didn't feel anything, so she shook her head.

"It doesn't matter, I can keep you company from now on."

Days passed and the prince did not leave the castle, the whole royal family waited anxiously. The Witch had not killed anyone before, but after Gladius's failed attempt, the possibility that she wanted revenge was not to be ruled out. But Adal had asked his mother and younger brother Medeo for a month, and they had sworn that they would wait for him without doing anything, so with a heavy heart they waited for the first week to end.

The Stone-Hearted Witch's castle was particularly cold at night. The large fireplace in the main hall had not been lit for years, so prince Adal, after the first two nights of absolute frost, refurbished the fireplace, collected the wood from the trees of the Witch's immense garden and lit the fire.

"Can you feel it? It's hot," he took the Witch's hand and held her toward the dancing flames so she could feel the heat without burning, the Witch nodded to the fire before her eyes, red and bright as the sun.  
That night, for the first time, the castle seemed to have come back to life.

"There was a fireplace in this castle, and I didn’t know it."

Prince Adal soon discovered that the Witch's meals were all the same, devoid of any flavor worth eating, completely different from those he was used to eat at court.  
So, the prince went in search of aromas in the garden and asked the Witch if he could cook. His dishes were not up to the chefs he had at the palace but for the Witch every bite of the food was an explosion of long-forgotten flavors.

"There were such flavors in my garden, and I ignored them."

Day after day, the prince made the Witch's home more and more comfortable, and the Witch began to find his presence pleasant. Room after room, that once lugubrious and scary place looked more and more like a house. The long-forgotten piano was also restored, and the music added new colours to the Witch's life.

Wandering among the rooms of the castle, one day the prince found a huge, ancient and scruffy bookcase, neglected for who knows how long.

"Do you like reading?" the Witch no longer remembered it, but there were thousands of books in her palace that once occupied all her days. She wondered why she had stopped coming.

"One time, perhaps," the Witch replied hesitantly to the prince.

The Stone-Hearted Witch couldn't take her eyes off prince Adal who was reading. His soul so pure was such an anomaly in the world she knew, yet she began to see a disturbance that clouded his soul. There were questions he wanted answers to, and she was the cause. She should at least have fulfilled that wish. 

"Can I ask a question?" the words she had chosen were so sweet spoken by the prince.

"Is a heart of stone heavy?" the Witch reflected a little before nodding, "How come your heart is made of stone?"

"Somewhere in the library there should be the answer, but I have tried to forget."

Then the Witch left the prince alone, and he immediately began to search in the immense library, driven by a magical will, and he soon found what he was looking for. An old diary, gray and dusty, called him from the shelf below, and the voice asked him to read it.  
And the prince discovered the truth. He understood why such great pain had to be forgotten. The time that he had left next to the Witch was not much, but it was enough to make the Witch's heart beat again.

On the other hand, the Witch could feel that something was changing in her. She could no longer be indifferent to life now that she had remembered the warmth of the fire and the beautifulness of the music, she was no longer able to sleep in a cold bed and to appreciate silence.

One evening, the wood they had collected had not been enough, and the Witch had woken up in the middle of the night caught in chills of cold. Even the prince’s sleep had been interrupted and they had both found themselves in front of the extinguished fireplace.

"It's too late to go out and get more wood," the prince was right, but the cold scared her more than the dangers of darkness.

"I won't take long," she said, heading to the front door, but the prince stopped her, holding her in a warm embrace. His arms tightened softly, not weighing at all on her, but firm in their place, not intending for anything in the world to let her go.

"Don’t go. If we are close, we can both warm up," the prince laid his forehead on the Witch's shoulder, stroking her back with slow, repetitive movements. At last she stopped shaking and found the strength to reciprocate the gesture of affection.

How warm people can be...

The prince accompanied the Witch to bed and hugged her all night. Warm tears fell down her cheeks but, seriously, she didn't know why.

A month passed quickly, and it was time for the prince to leave. The castle was now a new place. The windows were always open to accommodate the light, the chimney always steaming, the castle always warm, the garden always of a lush green, and the Witch, if possible, was even more beautiful than before.

"It's time for me to leave."

The Witch's stone heart clenched at the thought of his absence, but even more so in seeing that his soul was tormented. To thank him for all he had done for her, she had to fulfill his last wish, then for better or for worse she would let him go. But there was no need for the Witch to do anything, because Prince Adal’s heart was pure and his actions always reflected his desires.

So, for the last time, he hugged her, held her tight as he had never done before, and gently laid his lips on hers. The cheeks of both were wet with bitter tears. The prince could feel the heart of the Witch beat, and he wanted to understand it, to hear it, for one last time.

One more day, one day, he could stay.

The Witch for the first time laughed genuinely and her words sounded like music. Her eyes filled with tears at the memory of the last person she had ever loved before becoming what she was. A pure heart, like that of Prince Adal, had betrayed her trust, had made her suffer such an intense pain that rather than feeling it again she preferred to forget, to stop feeling any emotion at all to the point of no longer remembering that she was still alive.

And just as she was about to thank the prince and confess him her love, the castle door opened, as usual, without anyone touching it.  
Medeo, the youngest prince famous for his cunning, hurled a poisoned dart into the Witch's now vulnerable chest, immediately centering it.

Adal's heart turned black with anger towards his brother, but the fear of losing the woman he already loved and still wanted to know took over him. He had not done all of this to lose her so quickly, to make her be betrayed as it had already happened and to break her heart once again.  
But the Witch, who could peer into the depths of the human heart, gathered all her strength and held his hand and fulfilled his true last wish, so that he could leave with a light heart.

"It is worth living for a human, it is worth loving, even if one day it will break your heart, because it is the only way to be alive."


End file.
